


Kaia's Story

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [3]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bigotry & Prejudice, Bullying, Canon Compliant, Christianity, Developing telepathy, Discrimination, Female Character of Color, Fix-It, Gen, High School, POV Character of Color, POV Female Character, Parent-Child Relationship, Psi Corps, School, Sleepers, Slice of Life, Teenagers, The Corps Was Right, The Psi Corps tag is mine, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 02:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10207466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: On the ride home, she sat in the car expressionless – silent, exhausted, confused, and angry. Her parents didn’t care what she wanted – they were going to do whatever they wanted, no matter what. And what did they know about what she was going through?*****Sometimes, going on sleepers causes no side effects, but that's not the problem: the problem is you still have to live among normals.The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> Background: "Laters" are telepaths who both come from normal families and develop telepathy at or after puberty. Earth Alliance law offers only two options to those raised outside the Corps who develop telepathy - to join the Corps, or to take weekly injections to suppress telepathy (telepaths who refuse are arrested and sent to prison, and held indefinitely until such time as they agree to one of the two legal options). These discriminatory policies were instituted generations before the formation of the Corps, by the Earth Alliance Senate (all normals) - the Corps _did not and does not_ make these rules.
> 
> The second book of the Psi Corps Trilogy, Deadly Relations, page 46, makes clear that discrimination against ALL telepaths is legal, even against telepaths on sleepers. Registration status (as a telepath) is public.
> 
> “He tried to picture himself, outside the Corps, a _later_ , raised like a normal. Say he was twelve when he got his psi - what would he do out there in the mundane world? Take the sleeper drugs? That way he could hide his abilities, keep leading the life he was accustomed to - except that normals would find out, through personnel records, or official files. He couldn’t get a job or even get housing without disclosing his nature, and the normals would still hate him, sleepers or no. Or he could join Psi Corps, get a free education, room, board, job placement, protection from mundanes, the company of others like himself.”
> 
> This fic illustrates the challenges with being on sleepers while living in rental housing (and going to normal high school). A later fic (Josephine's) will illustrate the challenges with employment.

2228\.  New York City. 

 _Asma Chandyo, award-winning actress, sat in the studio of the late night talk show._ _[1]_

_“The rumors are true,” the twenty-eight-year-old star said, reluctantly. “The paparazzi photos you’ve all seen aren’t fake. Last year I did develop telepathy.”_

_Gasps emanated from the studio audience._

_“But you’re still working,” the host replied, shocked. “You’re still making films! And showing us all your lovely hands!”_

_She waved. “I am! That’s due to something called ‘suppression therapy’… have you heard of it?”_

_“I think so. You go on special drugs so you can’t, uh… read minds?”_ _[2]_

_She nodded. “Exactly. I take an injection once a week. That’s what those photos were about… A doctor comes to my house to give me the injection._ _[3]_ _That’s it!” She motioned. “I’m not telepathic. Not at all.”_

_“Just like that?”_

_She nodded._

_“Are there any side effects to the drugs?”_

_“They can make some people tired._ _[4]_ _But I’ve been fortunate. I have as much energy as ever!”_ _[5]_

_“And we’ve all been fortunate to still have you making films!”_  

***** 

            Kaia Artemis Bradley collapsed in the locker room at school. Paramedics brought her to the emergency room.

            “Black female, age fifteen, lapsed suddenly into unconsciousness and came around in a highly agitated state… cause unknown…”

            The doctors stabilized and sedated her, then consulted her parents.

            “Does she have any history of seizures? Fainting spells? Do her symptoms run in the family?”

            No, they said. Kaia was a healthy girl.

            The doctors told them her illness was somehow neurological – Kaia’s EEG was abnormal. After deliberation, they called in a medically trained telepath to assist with the diagnosis.[6] The Corps had a small office downstairs.

            “I don’t have to scan her,” the woman said flatly, from the doorway. “I could feel her down the hall. She’s a strong one.”

            “You mean, she’s one of you?” asked the resident. “Are you sure?”

            “What kind of question is that?”

            The resident looked nervously over to the doctor.

            The doctor nodded. “I’ve heard of this before,” he said, “though I’ve never seen it first-hand. Though most telepaths develop psi gradually, some of the strong ones can develop it suddenly. They can even pass out from sensory overload.”[7]

            Kaia was transferred to the Psi Corps medical center.[8]

*****

            The lights were still too loud, the sounds too bright, the smells still hurt, and the bed sheets felt like she was lying on sandpaper, but in the new hospital everyone’s mind was very, very quiet. When the staff talked to her, it didn’t hurt. They told her she was going to be OK, they were looking after her.

            She wanted to know what happened.

            _Your mind is changing_.

            Tenderness.

            In the first hospital, she’d felt little concern for her well-being – moments of concern punctuated a haze of professional nonchalance. Most of the staff had walked by, or drifted in and out, busy with other tasks. This patient needed this, that patient needed that.

            Slowly, as the sedation wore off, she became more aware of her surroundings: a bed, a small room with dim lights. Calming, abstract paintings. A sink. Medical panels blinking on the walls. Sheets made of cloth, not sandpaper.           

            Air ventilation hissed in the background.

            Eventually she noticed that the staff were telepaths. They all wore gloves – black leather or latex – and their medical coats were embroidered with the psi insignia of the Corps. She screamed for her parents.

            “Let me out of here! Let me go!”

            She tried to get up and run out the door, but found she couldn’t stand. The staff propped her up and helped her back to the bed. A senior doctor was called in to have “the talk” with her. Several medical interns trailed him like a multiethnic cluster of ducklings.

            “I’m Dr. Singh,” he said. “You’re here because this morning, you manifested telepathy.”

            That was simply too much to believe – there were no telepaths in her family. She’d never even met a telepath, aside from the testers in school. “I did not!” she shouted, sitting up. “Help! Let me go!”

            “Yes you did, Kaia. Your record says that you fell unconscious in the locker room and were brought to the hospital for normals. When they figured out what was happening, they transferred you here.”

            “I’m not a telepath!”

            Rather than “debate” the matter with her, he simply looked at her and in an instant, “told” her – without any words – that what happened to her was not uncommon, especially for telepaths who were very strong. He told her that manifesting is usually a frightening time, especially for young people from normal families, who don’t expect it. He told her she wasn’t going through it alone, that the Corps was there to help her. His affect was warm, affectionate – fatherly even, as if she wasn’t a new patient, but his own daughter.

            She blinked.

            “There, see?” he asked.

            “Your lips didn’t move. How did you do that?”

            “You did that.”

            “Me? I didn’t do anything.”

            “Didn’t you, though?”

            It felt automatic, reflexive, like raising your arm to catch a ball, or being in foreign language class when the teacher switched to English. She hadn’t “done” anything at all – she’d simply understood.

            “I want my mom,” she said.

_You can see your parents soon, when you’re well enough._

            Understanding was so unconscious, it was as if there was no “how” to the process at all. Could things happen without a “how?” She wasn’t sure what to call a subject, object, or verb, like they always talked about in English class. It just was.

            The doctor took a step forward, and she reflexively looked him closely in the eye, as he asked her to.

            But again, he hadn’t asked aloud.

_That’s right, Kaia. Look at me. Pay close attention and follow me. Do what I’m doing._

            Kaia did her best to copy what she felt the doctor doing in his mind. It was almost like a sorting game – in, out, front, back.

            In – the feel of the doctor’s mind. Out, the background buzz of the city. In, the feel of her own mind. Out, the interns.

            Some of the pain stopped. She realized she was hungry.

_Very good… See how to do it? It’s not hard, is it? Let’s keep going._

            They continued the game. After five minutes, she spoke up again.

            “My head hurts. My everything hurts. I hurt in places I didn’t know I could hurt. There is so much noise – out there, in me, and I can’t even tell the difference, because outside is all inside. My mind feels like an ant colony. I feel like someone just threw me in a blender and turned it up to maximum volume. …And that doesn’t even make sense.”

            The interns scribbled down notes in their electronic notepads.

            Dr. Singh nodded in a warm, fatherly manner. _Don’t worry, Kaia, you’re not alone in this. We’re all here behind you. We’ve all been through it, too, though not all of us quite so suddenly._

            By “we,” Kaia knew the doctor was referring not just to the pack of interns, but a much larger community.

            _“We?”_ she wondered. She had just become part of a “we?”

            The interns nodded, and Kaia could see that one of the young women had also been raised by normal parents and found out she was a telepath quite unexpectedly in middle school.

            Kaia didn’t know how she knew that. It was just there.

            “I want to go home.”

            _First we need to make sure you can walk, and keep down solid food._

_I don’t care if I puke, I wanna go home._

_You’re not going anywhere till you’re fit to do so. You’re going to build up your ((telepathic)) strength first._

            Dr. Singh had some food brought up to her room. Then he and the interns stayed with Kaia. She couldn’t believe she was getting so much attention, and wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. She wasn’t left alone for a moment.

            She found it difficult to focus on eating because of all the chaos in her mind, so the doctor helped her by gently blocking it out. She really appreciated the help, even if she had no idea how he was doing it.

            When she’d finished eating, they practiced some more. The exercises were hard work, and Kaia kept losing focus.

_How am I supposed to be able to tell one thing from the next? It all mixes together._

_That will come with practice._

_This is so overwhelming._

_OK, let’s try a different exercise. Did you play with clickbricks as a child?[9]_

            She nodded.

            They went through a visualization exercise, with Kaia constructing a “wall” in her mind that kept the flood of information out.

            _That helps, but it takes a lot of concentration!_

            _It becomes automatic with practice._

_Do I have to do this wall thing all the time now?_

_You’ll find a method that works best for you, and then you’ll be able to see just what you want to see, and keep the rest out. Eventually you won’t have to think about it, except in rare circumstances._

            Kaia was impressed by the doctor’s mastery. To him, it was as automatic as breathing.

            _I feel like… an infant,_ she said. _((Helpless. Overwhelmed.))_

            He nodded slightly. _You will learn this, Kaia, all telepaths do. Do you ride a bike?_

            She nodded.

_Remember how hard that was at the beginning? You fell off, right? Eventually, though, you no longer had to think about balance anymore because it came automatically. You just get on the bike and go, right? Your legs build up strength. We have to build up your mental strength._

            For the rest of that day, staff came in to check in on Kaia and give her exercises in fifteen-minute sessions.

            “I’m tired,” she complained after the fourth session.

            “These exercises will help,” said the nurse. “We’ve developed them to help young people in your situation. Eventually it will become easy to sort out background thoughts. You’ll look back at today and wonder what you found so difficult. You’re very strong, Kaia, and your mind’s taking in a lot more information than before. That’s very overwhelming if you don’t know how to process it. But you’ll get it with time.”

            Kaia again wished she could just go home. She wondered what her parents thought was happening to her. She hadn’t seen them since that morning, when she’d left for school.

            “You need to build up some strength before you can leave. Here we are all trained. We know how to regulate our thoughts so as not to overwhelm you. Out there, you’ll have no such help. If you don’t know how to block properly, you might pass out again. New York is a very big city. Even with all my training, I still find some things a challenge… Midtown at noon?” She shook her head. “That’s a headache.”

            Kaia laughed.

            “Your parents have been notified. They should be here soon.” 

***** 

            Now, in the Psi Corps medical center, Kaia thought about the actress, Asma Chandyo, as she watched her parents talk to the doctors. Asma Chandyo had gone on this “suppression therapy,” hadn’t she? So she could keep making movies?

            Kaia’s parents reminded her of mice in a hospital of cats.

            “We’re taking Kaia home,” was their only position. “Whatever it takes, we’re getting her out of here right now and taking her home.”

            Kaia sat on the bed and wondered why they were so scared. She agreed that she wanted to go home, but she also wanted answers. Why was she now telepathic? What did this mean for the rest of her life? Who was going to help her once she left the hospital? She was terrified, and the only people who had those answers were the ones her parents wanted to pull her away from. And those people seemed really nice, even if they were in Psi Corps.

            The doctors tried to explain some options to Kaia’s parents, but they fought with the doctors and said no to everything. _No, you are not taking our daughter. No, you’re not going to make her into one of you. No, we’re going to take her home today, whatever we have to do about it._

            The more the doctors tried to talk, the more agitated her parents became. Their intense emotions made Kaia’s head hurt. She tried to block things out, as the doctors had instructed her to do, but she wasn’t very successful.

            She started to cry. Misunderstanding, her parents thought she was crying because she hated the hospital and wanted to go home – but those were her parents’ thoughts, not her own. She knew she was only crying because their thoughts hurt so much.

            The doctors were so calm, so experienced. Smooth, like stones in water. She wished she could be like that, and she wanted her parents to be quiet, or at least to continue their argument far away. But oblivious, her parents continued to protest. Kaia was not joining the Corps, they insisted. The doctors reluctantly mentioned “suppression therapy,” the same drug that Asma Chandyo took.

            “I don’t wanna go on any drugs,” Kaia told her parents. “Didn’t you hear them? That stuff’s dangerous!”

            “No one said anything about the drugs being dangerous, Kaia.”

            “They didn’t? But I just heard it!”

            Her father shook his head. “When you’re eighteen, you can make your own decisions. Until then, we’re making this decision for you. You’re coming home, Kaia.”

            “There’s no choice,” her mother said. “If you don’t go on those drugs, you can’t go back to school with your friends. You have to go to a Psi Corps boarding school. And you can’t come home in the summer – you have to live there until graduation.”

            “I don’t want to go on any drugs! Didn’t you hear what the doctor said?”

            “Kaia, this matter is over. We’re your parents, and that is the end of it.”

            “This is my choice!”

            “No Kaia, it’s not.”

            Kaia was given an injection, and paperwork to take to her school principal. As quickly as the world had become three-dimensional, it became two-dimensional again. The doctors seemed to feel sorry for her.

            On the ride home, she sat in the car expressionless – silent, exhausted, confused, and angry. Her parents didn’t care what she wanted – they were going to do whatever they wanted, no matter what. And what did they know about what she was going through?

            She watched the buildings go by, and held back tears. She didn’t want to cry in front of her parents. Her mind went back to the lessons she’d learned at the medical center, all the exercises she’d done with the doctors and nurses. She thought about how special she’d felt, how valuable. Just because her parents couldn’t do what she could, didn’t mean they had the right to take it away from her.

            She silently prayed.

 

[1] This scene is patterned on the story of Anna Keck. See Gregory Keyes, Dark Genesis, p. 46-47. In 2117, Anna was a middle-aged, famous actress who discovered, once the genetic test came out, that she was a weak or latent telepath. She discussed this on the DiPeso show (a talk show).

[2] See Tim Dehass, “The Psi Corps and You!” /Babylon 5 #11/, where sleepers are referred to as “suppression therapy.”

[3] _Legacie_ s, “The Psi Corps and You!” /Babylon 5 #11/

[4] _Id._

[5] Gregory Keyes, Final Reckoning, p. 248. Bester has no side-effects on the drugs (while in prison). “And so he did, stood still while the needle pricked his arm and the sleepers went in, as they had for ten years now. He barely felt the stupid feeling spread. He had never had the extreme reaction to the sleepers that some did-the listlessness, the deeply drugged feeling. No, they left his mind pretty much intact, so he could be acutely aware of how crippled he was.”

[6] Psychiatric scans are mentioned in _Eyes_. Children’s hospitals also sometimes have telepaths on staff ( _And Now for a Word_ ).

[7] _Legacies_

[8] The Corps has separate medical facilities. See Gregory Keyes, Deadly Relations (Bester hospitalized, necroscans in telepath hospital), p. 168-172, 181-184 (necroscans in telepath hospital), and 194-196 (Ysidra Tapia hospitalized). In contrast, see Deadly Relations, p. 186-189 (necroscan in normal hospital (“He had chosen a mundane, in a mundane hospital, volunteering through the court system”), though Bester is kept overnight in the normal hospital when he suffers a heart attack during the necroscan). Possibly also implied in _The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father_ , in the scene where Bester interacts with Franklin in Medlab, and seems somewhat surprised that Franklin is willing to treat him.

[9] In-universe, what we call "Legos" are referred to as "click-builders" or "clickbricks." See Dark Genesis, p. 129, and Final Reckoning, p. 77. See also  _Legacies_ : "Gently Alisa, calm down. Do as I say, and block out the voices inside your head. Relax. Imagine a wall inside your mind. Build it brick by brick." "I can't!" "Yes you can! Focus! See the wall. I'll go away as the wall goes higher. You'll only hear what you want to hear. Yes, like that. Just like that."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She ordered another burger, and gave it more thought. Her gifts came from God. God had a plan for her, and it wasn’t this shit.

            The next morning, Kaia took the hospital paperwork to her school office. The principal looked it over, then looked her over.

            Kaia didn’t like that look.

            “I see,” he said. He paused.

            “Can I go now?”

            Another pause. He sighed. “As long as you stay on the drugs, you may attend this school. That’s the law. Just stay out of trouble, do you hear me?”

            “Yes sir.” She didn’t know what kind of “trouble” he meant. She wasn’t a trouble-maker. What kind of comment was that: “stay out of trouble”? Why did people always think that working-class kids were going to be “trouble”? She wanted to ask the principal what he’d meant, but thought better of it.

            She left for class. All her friends wanted to know if she was OK. Everyone had heard she’d passed out in the locker room, and they knew she’d missed two days of school.

            “Yeah, I’m fine, I just passed out,” she lied.

            “Where were you yesterday?”

            “Home, getting better. I kinda hit my head or something, but I’m fine now.”

            She told that same story at least ten times that day. She almost believed it by the afternoon.

            She even lied to her boyfriend. She hated lying to him of all people – but he couldn’t keep a secret, certainly not one like this. If she told him the truth, then everyone would know.

            On Sunday afternoon, a Psi Corps doctor came to her apartment to give her another injection. Kaia had a bad feeling. Other teens were always hanging around in the lobby on weekends, or out in front of the building. Wouldn’t they all have seen the doctor heading to her apartment? With his dark suit, black gloves and psi badge, he stuck out like a lion in Central Park.

            The next day, the rumors started.

            “Hey Kaia, Yuki told me that Mandy said that Rachel told her she saw a Psi Cop at your apartment yesterday.”

            “What?!”

            “Rachel says she saw him enter the building, and followed him upstairs to see where he was going.”

            “That’s nonsense. There was no Psi Cop in my apartment. Why would there be a Psi Cop in my apartment?”

            Her friend shrugged.

            But unlike Asma Chandyo, with her walled mansion in Beverly Hills, Kaia couldn’t hide her secret. As the weeks ticked on, her neighbors got a better look at her strange visitors. One day, Kaia found “freak” scrawled onto her locker in black marker. The teachers didn’t seem too invested in finding the culprit – they just offered her another locker, in another part of the school, far away from the lockers of her friends.

            Her boyfriend dumped her.

            “You lied to me,” he spat.

            “Oh? You would have stayed with me if I told you the truth?”

            He hesitated. “That’s not the point!”

            “Yes it is the point!”

            In church, her family got wary looks, and no one sat near them or looked them in the eye. It was all whispers and “you poor, poor dears.”

            The preacher’s words after the service told Kaia her gifts were a blessing from God, but his eyes said, “I’m so sorry for you.”

            “If I’m so blessed,” she asked him, “then why’d my dad force me on these drugs? If I’m so blessed, then why are my classmates tormenting me?”

            The preacher didn’t answer. He offered to pray with Kaia, to ask God to protect her and care for her at this difficult time.

            They prayed together, but Kaia still wanted answers.

*****

            Her principal may have warned her to stay out of trouble, but trouble found her anyway.

            One girl spat on her in the corridor, another pulled her hair, and a third pushed her while they were waiting for the bus. She didn’t fight back, because that would only earn her a suspension, if not an arrest.

            _Stay out of trouble_ , she reminded herself. _Have faith. Stay strong._

            “Freak!”

            “Mindfucker!”

            “Get your fat ass out of New York!”

            “Kill yourself and do the gene pool a favor!”

            “I hope those drugs kill you, bitch!”

            She took a public bus instead, and walked the rest of the way to her apartment. Asma Chandyo, with her glamour and her millions and her personal bodyguards, would never have to put up with this shit. Asma Chandyo had her own limousine. Asma Chandyo had her own private jet. Asma Chandyo had an entourage of adoring fans who kissed her ass.

            The next morning, Kaia’s family awoke to find that someone had vandalized their door, spray-painting a large letter psi on it. They looked at each other, confused, scared, and tried to wash the paint off, but were unsuccessful. The door would have to be repainted. None of them wanted to involve the police if they could help it. Kaia’s parents told the landlord.

            Two days later, a constable came to the door, and handed Kaia’s mother an envelope. She opened it, and stared at the document, shaking.

            “Dominique!” she shouted.

            Kaia’s father read the letter, and he and Kaia’s mother got into an argument.

            The notice stated that the family had violated of the terms of the lease, and that they had thirty days to vacate the property or the landlord would commence an eviction action in housing court. The document cited Kaia herself as the reason for the eviction – under the terms of the lease, no one registered with Psi Corps could live in the apartment complex even on “suppression therapy.” Her parents dug up a copy of the lease, read it, and argued some more.

            Kaia left for school, enraged. She knew once those guys from the Corps showed up, the whole apartment building would know, but she’d never expected this. Kaia didn’t think the landlord would have acted alone – the neighbors must have complained. Kaia may have been on telepathy-suppressing drugs, but the doctors who gave her the injections were not, and telepaths walking through the halls had to make people at least as nervous as police would. Everyone had something to hide.

*****

            “You keep saying I’m blessed,” Kaia told the preacher. “If I’m so blessed, then why would God allow all these bad things to happen to me and my family?”

            “I don’t know,” the preacher replied. “God has given you gifts, but that does not stop man’s capacity for cruelty. I do know however that God is still here with you, even if you don’t feel that way right now. God has a plan for you, and you need to have faith.”

            “When I was at the Psi Corps medical center,” she said, “before my parents insisted I go on these drugs, I felt…” she hesitated, “welcome. Valued. Loved. I felt that people understood me.”

            She saw the preacher pull away, a look of concern on his face.

            “No Kaia,” he said. “Your place is here, not with them.”

            Kaia sensed that he was scared.

            “Why?” she asked. “If we’re all so blessed, then why am I supposed to avoid others who are like me?”

            “It’s not that,” said the preacher. “Gifts may come from God, but we are all tempted, Kaia, telepaths no less than any others. All men can be swayed to evil. The Corps is evil, Kaia. You must stay away from them.”

            “They didn’t seem evil.”

            “Perhaps the doctors who helped you are not evil in their hearts… so we must pray for them, and not fault them for associations which are beyond their control.”

            She nodded, and they prayed together, but deep inside, she didn’t believe him.

            She pretended to go to school the next day, but she wandered around the city on her own instead, just watching people, eating fast food, and minding her own business. School was hell – she was already a freak there. She thought about Asma Chandyo, imagined what she would say to her if she ever got to meet her face to face. Asma Chandyo got to live in a mansion and make big-budget Hollywood vids. She got to wear skinny evening gowns and diamonds, and walk down the red carpet waving to her admirers. Kaia was getting evicted.

            Because what? Because she was different? She couldn’t read anybody’s mind, but what if she could? That was a reason to evict her and her whole family?

            She stuffed her face with fries. Neighbors got evicted when their kids committed felonies. What the hell had she done? Nothing. She was getting kicked out because her neighbors were afraid of telepaths walking down their halls.

            She thought about what the preacher had said. Was the Corps really evil? They’d tried to help her. If anyone was evil, she decided, it was the assholes who had spray-painted a psi to her door, and the landlord who’d decided to evict her family.

            Where would they go? A shelter? And what if a shelter wouldn’t take them either? If the landlord wouldn’t let her stay in her own apartment, she didn’t think they’d let her into a shelter. She’d still have to take injections, wherever she lived.

            She ordered another burger, and gave it more thought. Her gifts came from God. God had a plan for her, and it wasn’t this shit.

            At three o’clock she wandered home.

            “Kaia, where have you been?”

            “School.”

            “Don’t lie to me, I’m your mother. The school called and said you were absent without an excuse. You had us all worried sick.”

            “School sucks.”

            “Get your ass in here young lady, we’re going to have a long talk.”

            The “talk” involved a lot of scolding her for skipping school. Kaia tried to explain to her mother what was happening there: how her once-friends were ignoring her, that her boyfriend had dumped her, that someone had vandalized her locker, that she was getting messages from classmates saying they wanted her to kill herself – but her mother didn’t listen, and went on about all the danger Kaia could have gotten into, wandering around the city on her own.

            “If I disappeared,” Kaia snapped, “then maybe you wouldn’t get evicted.”

            “Is that what all this is about? Kaia, that is not your fault.”

            “The eviction notice says it is.”

            “Your father and I are going to talk to a lawyer and get it all straightened out.”

            “We can afford a lawyer? Since when can we afford a lawyer?”

            “That’s for your father and me to worry about, not you. Your job is to go to school, do you hear me?”

            Kaia promised to go to school the next day. And she did – she even took her math exam, though she was pretty sure she failed it. She hadn’t been able to study. She didn’t care about any of her homework anymore – she had no room left in her mind to care. She hadn’t even cared before the eviction notice.

            She couldn’t focus through the panic and rage. What the hell had she done to get them evicted? She hadn’t brought drugs home, or beaten up a neighbor. She didn’t own a weapon. She knew that the management company that ran her building didn’t care about the tenants – they took too long to fix things, they often gave her parents a hard time over little things – but she’d never heard of an eviction simply for existing.

            That night, the family prayed together after dinner for strength in getting through this difficult time, and as Kaia looked into her little sisters’ eyes, she realized that whatever her parents had said about her options, the fate of her family lay in her hands, and hers alone.

*****

            Kaia couldn’t sleep. When she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she heard her parents quietly talking in their room. She heard her name, and stopped to listen.

            “I’ll call Auntie Charlotte in the morning,” her father said. “Maybe Kaia can stay there until we find another place.”

            “That could be months, or longer… you heard what the lawyer said. Leases that prohibit telepaths – anyone even registered with the Corps – aren’t uncommon.”

            “Well, we have no other choice, do we?”

            Auntie Charlotte lived outside Mobile, Alabama, and owned her home. Kaia hadn’t seen her since she was five. Her parents were going to send her away, she realized, to live with a great-aunt she barely knew. If she didn’t leave, her family would be out on the street.

            _This would never happen to Asma Chandyo_ , she fumed. She didn’t know if the eviction was legal or not, but she did know that if anyone ever gave Asma Chandyo any trouble, she could hire a whole fleet of lawyers.

            Furious, she clenched her fists. It just wasn’t fair.

            Kaia still couldn’t sleep. Was moving to Alabama part of God’s plan for her, she wondered? She didn’t want to move to Alabama. What would life be like in Auntie Charlotte’s small town? Kaia had spent her whole life in New York City. She imagined endless stretches of fields filled with cows, like she saw on vids. Did they have cows there? Charlotte’s town was so small, they’d probably never even seen a telepath. How would the other kids react when she got her weekly injections? If her own friends had turned on her, why would complete strangers be any less hostile?

            The following afternoon, she got her math exam back. She’d failed, as expected, but she didn’t have the energy left to give a damn.

 _Who cares_ , she thought. _I’ll be gone soon anyway._

*****

            Kaia spent the afternoon at school reading the ‘nets. She saw a short vid produced by the Corps showing happy teenagers sitting in class and playing sports on a perfect green lawn.

            _Maybe my family is getting evicted for a reason, so God can put me on a different path._

            _I’ve been chosen. Why?_

            Instead of going home, she went to her church and prayed. She asked God to give her the strength to forgive her friends for harassing her, and the landlord for trying to evict her family, all because she was different. She remembered something her preacher had said in a sermon once, long ago, that persecution is a special gift God gives to His best friends. Through suffering, she would only be brought closer to God.

            She prayed for guidance. Whether she stayed on the drugs or joined the Corps, she’d still be persecuted. She thought of a life in the Corps, forever marked by a visible psi insignia badge and black gloves. The kind of person most folks wouldn’t even want walking down their hallways.

            “Kaia, your father and I had a talk last night,” her mom told her at dinner. “We’ve discussed the situation with Auntie Charlotte down in Mobile. We think it’s best if you stay with her for a while, just until we get everything with the landlord worked out.”

            She nodded, not telling them she already knew.

            “Auntie Charlotte is looking forward to seeing you again, now that you’re all grown up,” her mom said. “She’s got a room set up for you.”

            “I don’t want to go to Alabama.”

            “Of course you don’t, but we don’t have any other choice. If you’re still here at the end of the month-”

            “They’ll throw us all out, I know.”

            “It’s temporary, Kaia. We’ll get this sorted out.”

            Even on the drugs, she knew her mother was lying. No one knew how long it would take to find an apartment in their price range that would let her live with her family, or where that apartment would be. Maybe the new apartment would be far away, and her sisters would have to switch schools. How far would it be? How would her parents get to work? How could she do that to them?

            “It’s temporary, Kaia, we promise.”

*****

            She packed her bag that morning, but she didn’t fill it with her workbooks and digital reader for school, as she normally did. She stuffed the bag with photos of her family, mementos, some underwear, and her Bible.

            She prayed for strength. _If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you…_

            She kissed her parents goodbye at the door, but rather than going to school, she took the bus across town to the Psi Corps office.

            “My name is Kaia Artemis Bradley,” she confidently told the woman behind the desk. “I developed telepathy about a month ago, and my parents put me on sleepers. That’s what they wanted, but it’s not what I wanted. I’m here to join the Corps.”


End file.
